Overall it was a pleasant stay. The room was clean and comfortable.

The decor was traditional rather than the contemporary look favoured by big chain hotels. The facilities could do with modernising, but hopefully not at the cost of the hotel's character. More needs to be done to improve the soundproofing of the rooms.

One the plus side the hotel is an a lovely location and the staff are very friendly. There's real potential there, but based on current facilities etc the rooms are probably £20 - £30 over-priced.

Night 10 of our C2C walk. We'd enjoyed our first taste of the Moors, but even more so, the first touch of the sun for several days. Together with fellow walkers we waited at Clay Bank Top for the pick-up to arrive, and pretty much as promised, it did. We had a cheerful ride into Great Broughton which, when compared to other villages we'd visited, didn't seem to offer much charm.

The hotel is older and it is certainly dated, and I guess some of the facilities are a bit ordinary, BUT, after staying in quite a few B&B's over the previous few nights, it was almost nice to have the anonymity of an hotel where we didn't have to worry quite so much about where we could, or couldn't go, and whether or not we were disturbing our hosts. Some of our B&B experiences had exposed us to hosts who had very strict rules - you sort of understand what applies in an hotel!

The place was clean and fairly comfortable, and our twin room had a big ensuite bathroom with bath and shower. The walls were laminated which was a bit 50's motel in style, but there was plenty of hot water, heat for drying washing, and even hanging space!

Most of the staff were extremely friendly and engaging. They were prepared to chat, to offer advice and engage in banter. A couple of them behind the bar were a bit precious and didn't show much interest in anything, but hey, that's their problem at the end of the day.

The dining room was surprisingly good with a wide selection of dishes and quite good quality. There was a reasonable wine list, but also importantly for information starved walkers, there was wi-fi, although you had to keep going back every hour to get a new password which was a bit tiresome.

We came down late for breakfast as our next day's walk was to be short. The dining room was deserted and, frankly, the food was ordinary and very unimaginative, not what we expected after dinner. We ate only a little and caught the next shuttle back to the track.

I ended up rating the hotel as a 6 out of 10, but that may be a bit harsh, because when planning the return walk in 2013, I had decided to stay here again. To be fair, it's more like a 3.5 star job and a rating of 6.5. I guess there were flashes of really good stuff, mainly around most of the staff. If the service standard was consistent, especially in the bar and dining room, it would have been a more positive experience, but I guess the message is in the feedback that I WOULD stay there again.

Our daughter was married in August and we had considered lots of local venues but were absolutely thrilled when we decided to go to the Wainstones. From the moment we met David to book the date we had excellent support and were made to feel that our wedding was the most important event in the world ( the Hotel only does one wedding on any day so the venue is exclusively yours).The personal attention we received from the day we booked to the time we left after breakfast on the Sunday was second to none.The venue was fabulously intimate,the table settings exquisite,food delicious and attention from all the staff absolutely brilliant. We had the most amazing day ,everything ran perfectly to plan and we just relaxed and enjoyed the occasion. I would reccommend this Hotel and its wonderful staff to anyone and can assure you that it will be perfect,personal and very,very special .

I feel a bit stingy giving the hotel four stars not five (it really deserved 4.5), so I'll start with the pluses: a brilliant walker-friendly welcome, starting with being collected in a hotel car from Clay Bank Top and not being asked to take my boots off (and punctual and friendly drop-off the next day); offered to take our cases to our room; very helpful and friendly reception; big room; excellent food at dinner with great service (home-made proper onion rings, for example); good selection of beer; lovely breakfast (including proper undyed Whitby kippers on the bone); Sky Sports for free in the room (so we saw half of one of the England/India one-day matches!). What more could you want? Well, the decor was tired, the wifi was expensive (I did without), the bath took a while to run, and most of all there was a strong and strange smell (like mothballs??) in the room.